OconoJames

Thanks for the post, James! I appreciate your response. And welcome to the boards! I like these boards, great knowledge and great reading. I remember the Super Bowl show that you were speaking of. Apparently, there was a whale scooping up wall books like mad and spread something like $4k around the room. Wild! I personally did not make it because the show was Super Bowl Sunday and (as you said) it snowed like crazy late the night before. I remember that I was at The Corner Spot (1/2 block away from my apt.) that night drinking with friends and we partied down because of the snow and being trapped in along the lake bluff. I skipped that show!

Thanks, I've gotten lots of great info from these boards!

As for the Burnham Whale, he was at the last show at Serb Hall and dropped well over 5k... he's a large volume reseller, cool with making 15 - 20%. He's dropped aout 3k at my shop alone in the last month. VERY cool guy. I know I'm going to have a good week when he comes in.

Do you plan to be at Burnham tomorrow? (oops, ETA you'll be in Rosemont) I'll be there, but I plan to do something different from the last few shows and just bring .50 books (haven't brought them in about 9 months).

Lately I've been bringing lots of sets to shows and they've been doing very well. Anything from $5 to $300 (signed full run of the 2008 GotG series), as well as boxes of keys and silver age books. My wall books have been going like crazy - sold two Hulk 181's within a week. People seem to be wanting to spend a lot more on keys and investment books than ever before, but at the cost of the people that used to buy a shortbox worth of cheap books from me. Who knows with this market.

I take it from your first few posts that you don't much attend Alan's shows? He certainly has a reputation in this area.

- James

Mighty Con Milwaukee is run by a trio of collector-dealers out of Chicago (namely Geek, Inc. Comics) and it has always attracted an eclectic assortment of local comic dealers- Jim (Bula?), John Hauser Comics, Comic Verse, and Tango Comics Unlimited, plus the core trio of dealer/hosts- Geek Inc Comics, Pulp Culture Comics And Collectibles (autographed comics], and Sutdog Comics. All of these dealers band together 2-3 per table at Wizard World Chicago too.

Hi, just saw this and figured I would chime in. I am James Bula, owner of Kowabunga Comics in Oconomowoc - but there IS another Jim who was set up by the door, Jim Droese, and this may be who you talked too although I'll just pretend your nice words were about me too Jim is a very nice guy though.

We actually had a long set of tables in this picture:

https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/v/t1.0-9/11800068_784485111667265_4127766756074644338_n.jpg?oh=7a214f5dbcd7d1df7f9ccf38c812052b&oe=564D16D0

But I am not in it, those are two of my guys.

We had a great show and mainly sold a lot of wall books and silver age. I also found a lot of Star Wars books for the shop in the dollar bins as I can't seem to keep them in.

I've been going to shows in Milwaukee for 25 years (since I was 6! My uncle used to take me, which is how I got into comics in the first place). When I was 10 I met Alex Ross at some bowling alley show in downtown Milwaukee and he signed a bunch of promotional posters for me. This was right before Kingdom Come and he was a big name, just not the huge name he is now. It was pretty cool, and I have those posters up at the shop.

Those days are obviously over... I can certainly say I enjoy the Burnham show, and it is exactly what you say it is. We might make $200, might make $2,000, it just depends show to show. One of my better shows in recent years was earlier this year during the blizzard when hardly any dealers showed up. I know it was also Jim's best Burnham to date as well.

I will chime in a later with some more thoughts on the local con scene after work. Thanks for the shout out!

- James